


Home For The Holidays

by TheRedGlass



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Christmas traditions, Cozy, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Military Homecoming, Mom Natasha, Surprise Homecoming, dad clint, i gave myself feels on this one, inspired by all those, natasha and clint as parents, natasha and clint have a kid, videos - especially the christmas ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 12:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7574800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedGlass/pseuds/TheRedGlass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha is away on a mission and won't be home for Christmas, and Clint tries his best to console their six-year-old daughter. But thanks to Coulson and a mall Santa, he just might be able to pull off a Christmas miracle after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching a lot of those surprise military homecoming videos around the holidays and weeping like a fountain, then I thought about Clint and Natasha, came up with a headcanon that gave people feels, and I turned it into a fic and gave us all even more feels.

The mall was crowded, people pressed shoulder to shoulder in their puffy winter coats, bustling between the stores and kiosks with a singular purpose. It was cheerful but chaotic, which wasn’t surprising, given that there were only three more days until Christmas.

Clint looked down at the little girl clinging to his side. She peered around uncertainly as she bit down on her thumbnail, and he smiled encouragingly at her as he squeezed her hand. “Excited for Santa?” he asked, nudging her gently to get her attention.

She turned to look up at him, her green eyes wide but not with excitement. She bravely tried for a smile, knowing Clint wanted her to be happy. “Yeah,” she said in a small voice that was far from convincing.

Clint smiled back at her knowingly, stroking her soft long brown hair back off her face with his free hand. “I know you want mommy here for Christmas sweetie. I want her here too. But she has a very important mission she has to finish - she’s helping to keep a lot of other little kids safe.”

“I know,” she said, and her little face was sadly determined, more grownup and brave than any six-year-old should have to be.

Clint knelt down in front of her, cupping her chin gently. “It’s okay to be sad Maggie,” he assured her. “But mommy’s going to be home soon, I promise. And she still wants you to have fun at Christmas. So we’re gonna go see Santa, we’re gonna take pictures and we’re gonna go get some hot chocolate and then we’re gonna go home and bake some cookies and this time I’m not gonna burn them, I promise.”

Maggie smiled shyly at that.

“Sound like a plan kiddo?”

She sighed but smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

Clint kissed her forehead. “Okay.” He stood up and took her hand again, his heart beating double time in his chest, hating that he had to keep a secret of this magnitude from her but knowing that the end result would be worth it.

They stepped into the line to see the mall Santa on his plush throne and he had to restrain himself from staring around in anticipation and raising Maggie’s suspicions. They waited patiently, squeezing the other’s hand in Morse code to communicate their enjoyment of the winter decorations - a practice they had started when Maggie had first started to learn American Sign Language and begun expressing interest in learning all the languages and methods of communication she could.

When they reached the front of the line, Clint had to gently nudge his daughter forward, lifting her onto Santa’s lap and pulling out his phone to record the exchange.

“Ho ho ho!” Santa announced - an elderly man with a real beard who seemed committed fully and happily to his role. “What’s your name little girl?”

“Margaret Nicole Romanoff-Barton,” Maggie said softly.

Santa’s eyebrows raised. “That’s quite the name!”

“Well, mostly people call me Maggie.”

“And how old are you Maggie?”

“I’m six.”

Clint adjusted the framing of the video, forcing himself not to look around desperately as the anticipation built. She had to be close.

“You’re getting to be quite a grownup young lady.”

Maggie shrugged, still looking uncertain about everything.

“And what would you like for Christmas Maggie?”

The small girl hesitated, looking down at her hands in her lap. “Um…maybe…the next book in the Magic Fountain series…maybe glowy lights for my bike tires…”

Clint locked eyes with the Santa briefly, and they exchanged a knowing look before Santa turned to look back at Maggie. “You know,” he said gently. “I’m pretty good at knowing whether kids are good or bad, and what they want for Christmas. I have the feeling that maybe those things aren’t quite what you’re after.” He leaned down to meet her eyes. “Maggie, what do you really want for Christmas?”

Maggie froze at that, hesitating as her small face was overwhelmed with emotion. She took a breath, and then admitted in just above a whisper. “Well, my mommy is an Avenger…”

“Is that so?” Santa asked, giving Clint another look.

Clint chanced a quick look around.

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “And, um, she’s on a mission right now.” Her little voice trembled while she attempted to stay brave. “And she won’t be home for Christmas and I miss her a lot.” She took a deep breath. “That’s what I really want for Christmas. I want my mommy to be home for Christmas.” Her whole body seemed to sag a little. “But even Santa can’t do that,” she said sadly.

Santa smiled kindly and gently tapped the end of her nose with one gloved finger. “Never doubt the magic of Christmas, Maggie.”

Maggie frowned at him in confusion, and at the same moment Clint’s heart skipped a beat as he caught sight of a flash of red hair and had to force himself to keep filming and not just rush forward to join the scene he knew was about to ensue.

As Maggie sat and tried to process, Natasha slipped silently to the front of the crowd of shoppers and parents waiting with their kids to see Santa. She was still wearing the bodysuit from her mission - on the phone, Coulson had warned Clint that it was going to be a tight timetable, that they would have to rush her directly from the nearest airfield that would hold a quinjet as soon as she disembarked.

But she’d made it, and now Clint watched as Santa smiled mysteriously and raised a finger to point to the crowd to their left.

Maggie turned slowly, puzzled, and she froze for a second as she processed who was standing there next to her.

“Hi baby,” Natasha said gently, warmly. “Merry Christmas.”

Maggie stared for another moment she cried out “MOMMY!” and scrambled from Santa’s lap and ran to her mother as Natasha knelt down to meet her. Her face crumpled with the sheer weight of emotion and she sobbed out “MOMMY!” and launched herself into Natasha’s arms, clinging on frantically like a baby possum. Natasha hugged her back tightly, holding the little girl secure in her arms and nestling her face against her hair.

“Mommy,” her daughter continued to sob. “Mommy, mommy…”

Clint felt his own tears start to fall and finally he couldn’t stay away and he hurried over to join the emotional scene. He framed Maggie’s little tear-streaked face pressed tight against Natasha’s shoulder. “Hey Maggie,” he said, fighting to speak through the thickness in his throat. “What do you think, huh? Mommy’s home!”

She cried, somehow tightening her already frantic grip on her mother.

Clint smiled through his own tears, heart breaking in a wonderful way as Natasha looked up to meet his gaze and he saw that her face was wet as well.

“Welcome home,” he choked out inelegantly.

“I missed you guys,” Natasha said, her voice only slightly less choked with emotion, and she held out an arm to invite him into the embrace.

Clint threw his arms around the two people he loved most in the world and he knew this was already the best Christmas he could have asked for.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so many feels I had to make a part two.

Maggie continued to cry loudly, then softly into Natasha’s shoulder, her small frame shaking as Clint enveloped the two in a hug. The crowd around them was making soft noises of awe and emotion, appreciating the reunion almost as much as the three of them were.

Finally Maggie raised her head to look at Natasha, hastily wiping tears from her face with both hands, voice still shuddering a bit from the toll the tears had taken on her. “I’m-m hap-py, m-mom-my, I p-promise,” she choked.

“I know you are sweetheart, I know you are,” Natasha said, her voice and face so soft and full of love that as Clint took a step back to wipe at his own face, he almost lost it again.

Natasha slowly knelt to the ground, lowering Maggie who yelped out in protest as her sneakers touched the floor and she refastened her arms around her mother’s neck. “Hey, hey,” Natasha soothed. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise. Just gonna clean you up a little, okay?” When Maggie didn’t loosen her death grip, Natasha repeated, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here. Okay Magpie?”

The sound of her nickname got through to her, and Maggie slowly nodded and released her hold and took a half step back. Natasha smiled and wiped at her daughter’s face, gently using the pads of her thumbs to press away a few of the tears shimmering there on the girl’s small cheeks. “Oh Magpie, I missed you so much,” she said with a soft, enamored smile, and she leaned forward to place an enthusiastic kiss on her forehead. She looked up at Clint. “I don’t suppose you have a tissue.”

Clint hesitated, then fished around in his jeans pockets for a moment before coming up with a crumpled shedding wad of what had once been a tissue. He held it up in a gesture of apology with a little self deprecating smile.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Really Clint?” she said. “You didn’t bring any tissues? How did you think this was going to go down?” But a smile crept onto her face regardless. “Okay,” she said, standing up and reaching for her daughter’s hand. “We’ll go get some napkins or something.”

“We were planning to get some hot chocolate,” Clint offered, and he pointed across the way at a Starbucks.

She smiled and nodded, and then turned to face the costumed man who’d played a part in the presentation. “Thank you, Santa,” she said.

The man smiled and tipped his head. “It was an honor,” he said sincerely, before he held his arms out to welcome the next child in his line.

Natasha reached over with her free hand and took Clint’s hand in hers and they walked through the crowd of shoppers, utterly focused on their little group of three and nearly unaware of the people still staring after them, misty-eyed at the reunion. They only got a few steps before Maggie was hopping and reaching up and Natasha laughed softly with an indulgent smile and bent down to pick her up. They entered the Starbucks with Maggie’s head nuzzled against her mother’s shoulder and Clint’s arm curled affectionately around Natasha’s waist, letting the warm espresso-scented air and soft holiday music wrap around them like a cozy winter blanket.

They managed to find seats at a table in the corner, and Clint grabbed a stack of napkins from the bar and passed them to Natasha who had settled Maggie on her lap. She dabbed carefully at the tears still lingering in tracks on the child’s face, and made her blow her nose. Clint and Natasha made use of a few napkins for themselves as well, though they tried to pretend they weren’t necessary. And they just sat for a few moments, reveling in all being together again, finally. Clint held Natasha’s hand under the table, and she squeezed his hand in response.

They had no idea how long they sat there, just looking at each other and feeling like melting from the impossible fullness of their hearts. Then Maggie was tugging at Clint’s sleeve, whispering, “I wanna buy mommy a hot chocolate.”

They laughed. “Okay Magpie, sorry, we’ll go get hot chocolate now,” Clint said. “I did promise.”

They managed to extricate themselves from the corner table and make their way to the counter, Maggie clinging to her mother’s side.

A young man with spiky dark hair, a subtle piercing in one ear, and a name tag that declared “DEVIN” in blocky letters gave them a welcoming grin. “What can I get you folks?”

Clint turned to check with Natasha. “Grande hot chocolate,” she confirmed. “And how about a gingerbread cookie?”

Clint nodded and turned back to the barista. “Two grande hot chocolates, a kid’s hot chocolate-”

He was briefly interrupted by Maggie shyly tapping his elbow, and he smiled in acknowledgment and continued “-with extra whipped cream, and a gingerbread cookie.”

Devin tapped away on the screen in front of him, smiling. “You got it.”

Clint pulled out his wallet and extracted his credit card before Maggie was tugging at his shirt. “I wanna pay for it,” she said. The she hesitated for a moment, thinking, and then whispered, “Can I borrow some money?”

Suppressing a laugh, Clint handed his card to her and Natasha lifted her up to the counter so that she could reach. But the barista held up a hand, waving the card away. “This one’s on me guys.”

“What?” Clint said, blinking in surprise.

Devin smiled, nodding out towards the big glass windows at the front of the store, where they could see across the hall to where Santa was holding court with his tiny subjects. Their reunion had been visible to an even wider audience than they’d realized. “I’m just glad to see that another family gets to spend the holidays together. Especially with the kind of work you guys do,” he added, nodding at Natasha’s SHIELD issued bodysuit. “Thank you, for keeping us safe. Now go enjoy some time together.”

Maggie dropped Clint’s card in the tip jar.

Clint laughed as he fished it out and replaced it with a twenty. “Hey, thanks.”

“Thank you,” Natasha added, Maggie’s small voice chiming in as well.

Devin waved it off as he marked cups for them and moved over to the bar to prepare their drinks.

A few minutes later, hot drinks and cookie in hand, they had ensconced themselves back in the corner and Maggie began regaling her mother of her adventures with her father while she’d been away.

“It set off the fire alarm!” she said through a mouthful of cookie, her eyes big. She waved her hands. “Lucky was barking and jumping all over the place!”

“In my defense,” Clint said, holding up a finger. “That oven has it out for me.”

“Yes, the oven is clearly at fault here,” Natasha said, bemused.

“Daddy said we can make more cookies,” Maggie added, setting down her hot chocolate. “Can we?”

Natasha leaned down to wipe whipped cream from the girl’s lip. “Sure we can.”

Maggie’s face lit up and she launched into a new story, this one about Tony and Bruce taking them to an ice skating party and how Tony had pretended not to know how to skate to make her laugh, and how Bruce had taught her a small spin.

When they’d finished their refreshments, they wandered back out into the mall, Maggie still chattering away happily and clinging to her mother’s side as they admired all the window displays and decorations and lights. They enjoyed the sights for a while before Clint turned and knelt in front of his daughter. “So what do you think Magpie?” he asked. “You wanna go home now, get ready for Christmas?”

Maggie looked at him with a touch of uncertainty for a moment before her eyes widened in sudden understanding. “Home home?” she asked, almost seeming hesitant to hope.

He nodded, a big grin spreading across his face. “Home home,” he confirmed.

Maggie squealed and flung herself at him for a hug as he and Natasha laughed.

“Yep,” he said again. “Coulson promised he’d have a quinjet ready and waiting for us tonight. I just have to let him know we’re ready to go.”

“I’ll send him a message,” Natasha said, watching her daughter’s enthusiasm with adoration.

Less than ten minutes later they were in the air, and less than half an hour later they were landing in the silent snow in a clearing bracketed by pine and maple trees. They thanked their pilot and stepped out into the winter night, admiring the small white farmhouse that awaited them.

Maggie shrieked and went tearing through the snow, squealing even louder when she was suddenly knocked down by an exuberant Lucky, who’d been flown in earlier on one of Tony’s planes when Clint had mentioned wanting to swap their city apartment for the country house for Christmas as a surprise for both Natasha and Maggie. They trudged through the snow towards the house, where their black cat Liho crouched inside of window, clearly still displeased with his own cross country travels.

They all traipsed inside and knocked snow off their clothing and shoes, Clint delicately brushing some from Natasha’s hair where it curled next to her cheek. Time seemed to slow as she fixed him with her deep green eyes, and his thumb hovered over cheek before settling there, soft as a butterfly. He slowly drew it down as he slipped his other hand around to the small of her back, and brushed it across her lips. Her lips…soft and warm and safe… He still couldn’t believe sometimes, after all those years, all those moments, a child, that she had chosen him.

Natasha felt a warmth creeping across her face, not embarrassment, but an astonishment that she could have this in her life - that someone like her, who’d done the things that she’d done, someone who certainly didn’t deserve these kinds of moments, could have these simplest of things that so many others took for granted as an eventuality in their lives. A home. A family. Love. Her heart swelled in her chest and she leaned into the gentle pressure of Clint’s thumb against her lips. Inch by inch he slid it away, leaning in to meet her. Impossibly slowly their lips touched. A warmth sparked through her, a feeling like soaring that was reckless and the safest thing in the world all at once. She curled a hand around the back of Clint’s neck, pulling him in even more, parting his lips, deepening the kiss. He responded gladly, following her lead, and his hand slid down on her back, to her waist, and then lower-

-and then suddenly Maggie burst into the foyer, both arms wrapped around a bag of flour clutched to her chest. “Cookies!” she announced. Lucky skittered around her, barking his agreement.

They parted from the kiss quickly, awkwardly, Clint laughing and Natasha sighing, shaking her head. “Okay, okay, we’ll be right there,” Clint promised, and the little girl darted off to the kitchen again.

Natasha took Clint’s hand, dropping a kiss to the back of it and squeezing it gently, fixing him intently in that powerful emerald gaze of hers. A promise. Later.

He felt his knees go weak and he had to take a moment before he followed Natasha as she made her way to the kitchen.

It wasn’t long before the place had exploded in a haze of flour and sugar, sprinkles and frosting glazing almost every surface. Lucky did his best to help, while Liho perched across the room on a trunk, expressing his general disdain for the proceedings until Natasha placated him with a tiny saucer of milk. Maggie talked a mile a minute, beside herself at having both her parents and being in the farmhouse where she felt most at home. She didn’t mind the city, but there was something truly special about this place of their very own, far away from any of the chaos that often consumed the lives of the Avengers.

Natasha did her best to restrict the sugar intact of both her daughter and Clint, but after a while she decided it wasn’t a battle worth fighting and she joined them in licking every spoon and eating every “mistake” cookie, all of them giggling.

In between batches, they assembled the Christmas decorations Tony had been kind enough to bring down from their attic. He’d left a tree in their living room too, a red bow tied around its middle and otherwise ready to be adorned to their own specifications. And beneath that tree was an assortment of wrapped gifts, many bearing Maggie’s name. She exclaimed over the pile, but was most excited to join her parents in decorating the lovely fat little spruce. They wound garlands and hung ornaments and strung lights, and finally stood back to admire the end result.

House decorated and cookies cooled and kitchen (mostly) cleaned, Natasha finally reluctantly announced, “Bedtime, Magpie.”

“Aww!”

“More Christmas tomorrow,” Natasha promised, pulling her in for a hug. “Come on, we’ll get you a bath and daddy can read you a story, okay?”

Bathtime and storytime went off smoothly, Maggie clearly soothed and reassured by the constant presence of both parents, and even despite all the excitement and the sugar, her eyes were drifting shut two pages before Clint could get to the end of the story. He finished the tale in a whisper, Natasha watching from her seat beside the bed with wonder and sheer adoration. They tucked their daughter in together, turned on a nightlight, and slipped quietly out of the room and down the hall to their own bedroom, softly clicking the door shut behind them.

It was dark inside, save for a strand of multicolored Christmas lights Maggie had insisted they frame the window glass with. Natasha seemed to illuminate like a goddess in the soft tinted glow from the tiny bulbs, and Clint felt like he was falling in love all over again. “Hey,” was all he could manage to say at first.

“Hey.” Natasha’s smile betrayed her seeming calm, and after a moment she’d crossed the small space between them to wrap her arms around his neck and resume the kiss they’d had to pause earlier that evening. His hands were in her hair as he kissed her back, feeling the gentle yet hungry press of her lips seeming to challenge his to keep up.

He had to come up for air eventually, and he used the moment to murmur, “How are you so perfect…” He was flushed and his brain was spinning from the sheer intoxicating feeling of having her there in front of him again, being able to touch her, and he couldn’t think straight enough to pull together all the words he needed to tell her how every time he saw her with Maggie he thought he might ascend to a higher plane of existence from the sheer happiness that engulfed him, how she made every day seem like a holiday.

“I’m not-”

“Don’t. You are. You’re everything to me.”

“You gave me everything,” she whispered, staring at him as though suddenly trying to comprehend once again where she was, who she was with, what they had.

They just looked at one another for a long moments, hearts nearly bursting, faces flushed, an electricity tingling in the room.

Natasha reached up and pulled Clint’s face back down to hers, tugging him towards their bed.

Clint swept her up in his arms and laid her gently on top of the blankets before crawling onto the bed himself, crouching over her and running his fingers through her hair and along the lines of her face, as though committing every inch of her to memory. His fingers slowly slipped down her neck, past her collarbones, to where they slipped delicately under the straps of the soft pastel pink tank top she pulled on with a pair of grey sweatpants after shedding her bodysuit when they’d first arrived at the house. Natasha reached up to splay her fingers across his chest as he ever so slowly slid the strap off her shoulder.

“Mommy?” came a tired voice from the doorway as the door clicked open. “Daddy?”

Clint and Natasha froze, then each suppressed a groan. Clint moved to sit on the edge of the bed and Natasha fixed the strap of her tank top as she sat up. “Is everything okay sweetheart?”

“I can’t sleep,” Maggie said, rubbing at her eyes as she pushed through the door and made her way over to the bed.

“Do you need some more milk?” Clint asked, exchanging a hopeful look with Natasha.

Maggie shook her head, and she promptly used Clint’s lap as a stepstool to climb onto the bed. “I miss you and mommy too much,” she said, quickly pulling back the covers and burrowing underneath, situating herself directly in the middle of the bed between their pillows. “I need to sleep here tonight,” she announced, her sleepy eyes shining bright with hope.

Natasha closed her eyes for a moment, desperately trying not to show any sign that she’d hoped the night would go differently. She gave a little sigh as she opened her eyes and took in Maggie’s earnest face, smiling despite herself. “Of course,” she said.

“Yeah, c’mere kiddo,” Clint said, sliding under the blankets on his side and adjusting the pillows for Maggie and tucking her in carefully. Natasha slid in on her side, and they shared a look over Maggie’s head that held a silent exasperated laugh. It wasn’t a real disappointment, because the three of them there, together, sharing the life they had, was all any of them had wanted for Christmas.

Maggie fell back asleep quickly, nestled snugly between the two of them and sleeping as deeply and as securely as only a truly content child can. Natasha and Clint held hands over the covers, their fingers moving in small gentle gestures as a silent communication as they took in the stillness of the night, the room gently illuminated by the glow of the colorful lights, giving off a sense of simple peace and joy that neither had ever hoped to experience. The night was silent but full of a nameless magic, and they stayed awake for a long time just to keep it there.


End file.
